The Alberto Contador scandal has been lurking in the background for the first week while an unpredictable and brilliant story unfolds, says ITV.com/tour editor Luke McLaughlin

Tour de France organisers must be secretly delighted that (conspiracy theories aside) an unwitting fan brought down a group of riders containing champion Alberto Contador of Saxo-Bank on Stage 1.

The Contador case dominated the pre-race chatter to a very large extent. The 2011 race had been rocked, rolled, beleaguered and dogged by the scandal after last year's champion was shown to have tested positive for clenbuterol during the 2010 race.

Pundits speculated on how his looming hearing at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in early August might affect the racing this year.

Would second place be regarded as the 'virtual yellow jersey'? Would Contador's rivals happily let him attack on his own, relying on the insurance policy that his eventual result would be scrubbed out in August?

Maybe. But where is this controversy lurking exactly? At the time of writing, precisely 01'42" behind the race leader Thor Hushovd.

The first week has been gloriously unpredictable and remarkably (mercifully?) Contador-free. OK, Philippe Gilbert won Stage 1, which many had foreseen.

Kudos to Ned Boulting for predicting that the beginning of this Tour would be nothing if not unpredictable. It's early days but with the three-time champion languishing nearly two minutes behind the leaders, the race has yet to take shape.

Cadel Evans and his BMC Racing Team raised eyebrows with their strong team time trial on Stage 2, and he won Stage 4 with an impressive climb on Mur de Bretagne.

Garmin-Cervelo's Hushovd claimed the yellow jersey in Les Essarts on Stage 2 - not surprising in itself. But the way he has defended the maillot jaune has utterly disproved the theory that he arrived at the race in poor form.

Tyler Farrar provided one of the stories of the race so far - winning Stage 3, and dedicating the victory to his late friend and team-mate Wouter Weylandt, tragically killed in this year's Giro d'Italia.

The Mark Cavendish show got under way well before his first win, the 16th of his career, on Stage 5. His disqualification from the intermediate sprint on Stage 3 for a coming together with Hushovd was laughable. Both the riders said so, as did everyone else.

Hushovd's race is an interesting one: he's said he's not going for the green jersey this year (although he's won it twice before). But when sprinters start to jostle for position for an intermediate sprint, Hushovd cannot help himself - he simply has to join in.

The Norwegian insists his aims are to defend the yellow jersey and to win stages. As Matt Rendell said on Wednesday's podcast of Thor's intermediate sprints: "That's obsessive compulsive behaviour - the man needs help!"

For Cavendish it's all about being first over the line - or sixth, in the case of Stage 6's intermediate sprint, when a five-man break had already been past the sprint point. It remains a frustration that he sits up when he knows he's been beaten in a sprint, if he really wants to win that green jersey.

Following the disqualification of Tom Boonen (Quick Step) and Jose Joaquin Rojas (Movistar) for blocking him on Stage 5, he could have ended with a 65-point day if he'd kept battling for a place.

The same principle applies to the intermediate sprint won by Tyler Farrar on Stage 1. Here's hoping for lots more stage wins and the green jersey for Cav in Paris.

In summary, we've had a first week which is impossible to summarise. So much has happened in a week. We can only hope for fewer crashes and more excitement as the race approaches the Pyrenees.

The cream will rise to the top when it comes to the mountains, Pyrenean or Alpine. And Contador will be back in the forefront of all of our minds.

Follow Luke on Twitter

Follow ITV Cycling on Twitter